Blogs :: Weblogs

Blogs, or weblogs, to give blogs the full expansion, are the encompassing group for a number of individual blog entries in an online journal. Blogs are a set of social updates about newsworthy events that are shared.

Blogs are also the name for the repository for those weblog's. It is a bit confusing, I know, because blogs is a noun in itself whilst there are blog's (a number of single entries in a diay), also.

Blog's is the plural of blog whilst blogs stands in it's own right as the place where blog's live. It is exactly the same for weblog's and weblogs.

Blog's is a number of single blog.

Blogs are the grouping of those blog's.

Are we clear on that?

No matter, suffice it to say that, in this article we are dealing with the group that can be moved in it's entirety (blogs), to be shown as feeds on web property / real estate.

As always, the problem with getting readership for any content, is how to publicise the "product" to maximise the potential "sale". "Product" here means anything created for online readership and "sale" means product read (a physical sale is made when an ad click is recorded or an order is instigated).

At this point I am assuming that you understand what a blog is. If you need confirmation of your undestanding then "Blogs :: What is a Blog?" by Humagaia, should be helpful. Blogs / weblogs, are:

• a repository for a number of individual blog / weblog - the mechanisms employed to display a sequence of blog's / weblog's in reverse-chronological order as if you were flipping backwards through a diary (now why would you be doing that?)
• a place to point at with a feed that will ping you when an update is made to the blog. The feed is placed on a recipient website, web presence or desktop (laptop as well) browser screen, so the subscriber to the feed can be notified of an update occurrence to the blog.
• web properties on which all the extraneous advertising paraphernalia is placed to achieve monetization for the web real estate (the blog / weblog). It is the shop window, that points to the door, through which you want the reader to pass, in order for them to make a "purchase".
• places where you interact with your customer, greeting and welcoming them at the door and pointing them to the goodies you have on offer. You then employ your sales pitch (the blog / weblog) to persuade them to purchase
• the place where you do customer service, by replying to comments, which could be negative, with a courteous response appropriate to the comment. And always answer any questions. You may want a sale and be done with it, but a blog that gets people coming back for more is a goldmine. It has monetary value in the real world.

Eveything you do on the web should be geared towards the sale, whether it be to get the readers to read or to entice them to make a purchase, or both. Without footfall, you have no prospect of the sale. The greater the footfall, the greater the potential for sales. Once at your "shop" it is up to you as the salesperson to make the sale.

You do it the traditional way: you advertise. You strive to ensure that your blog's are read, so you can take the reader to the next stage. But on the web, nothing is traditional. There are several methods, each of which need to be thought about carefully:

• organic traffic - this is the free advertising that we all want a part of, that comes from searches being made on search home pages etc.. I say free, it is hardly that. Here you will need to learn a lot of additional skills like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - some resources are given below for you to read up on this subject. If you can pull this trick off then it is then free for the lifespan of the content you have provided.
• paid search traffic - this is where you feed from one of the trough's placed before you. You have to choose which is the most appropriate keyword to target. You will not do this without any clues. There are a number of software programs that can help. You do not have to worry too much about SEO (unless you are targeting organic traffic as well) but you will need to have content relevant to the keyword you have chosen. This has an impact on where you appear in the paid-for search boxes. The search engines have changed their policies to the extent that position is determined by relevance and cost not just cost alone.
• if you are a primary sales source then you could set up an affiliate program utilising a package deal where the affiliate mechanisms are handled by an ad agency or you could make a big mistake and go it alone. The sales force you have is commission only, They go out and persuade customers to come to your door. You invite them in and make the second sales pitch.
• traffic generated from people seeing your advertisement cards in the windows of shops, in newspapers, magazines and the like. No, silly, this is an analogy. You need ad placement..Your ad spiel needs to be seen. You need to get it out there.
• the last way for this article to get pointers to your shop, placed in places where shoppers may be looking, are places like notice boards. Another analogy. You want people that have come to see products like yours actually make the decision to follow a link to your web content. This is done by submitting your link to various places on the net. More of that separately.

I have been thinking about the last of these quite seriously since being part of the 60DC challenge. My conclusion and strategy follow:

My conclusion are as follows:

• we need a centralised place where all blogs can be seen and advertised in a joint effort
• blogs need to be grouped into like entities so a choice can be made by the passer-by from a number of like offerings - it's called competition. The more competition in a vicinity then the more cost-efficient, in time and money, it is for the potential customer to visit. And who is to say that they will not browse in a number of shops.
• we cannot rely on a place external to HubPages to generate the number of non-Hubbers to arrive quickly enough, because the search engine free traffic will not be generated as fast as from here on HubPages.
• So, we need a top-level hub that is matured somewhat by the time it is required to perform the duty of pointing to a number of sub-hubs that have category-specific blogs pointed to.
• then we need sub-hubs for each of the groups of blogs that will be generated.
• the feeds to the blogs will be featured in those sub-hubs.

The sub-hubs will not be for the sole use of programs like a 60DC (60 day challenge). This structure will be for the use of anyone that wishes to promote their blog for free on a moderated blog feed directory. This will be to the benefit of all of HubPages as it should generate incoming traffic from external sources.

And by the way, so as not to miss a chance to publicise my own blog, then here is the link to get to it: Google and Blogs a blog by Humagaia.

If you have a blog and want it to be promoted then please feel free to drop me a line, in the comments section below, using the pencils supplied. You should describe your blog in the following format:

Category: [Try to use one that is used within HubPages]
Description: [Please keep this brief, 20 words max, if possible]
URL: [You know what this is]

Let's get our blogs promoted.